How the County Fought to Keep Employee Misconduct Records Under Wraps
For months, county lawyers spun arguments to keep employee misconduct records Voice of San Diego requested from its behavioral health department from becoming public.
It all started after Voice made a March 2025 public records request seeking reports of misconduct in the county’s Behavioral Health Services Department that investigators found to have merit.
First, county officials claimed they didn’t have records to disclose. Then their lawyer incorrectly claimed that two county facilities weren’t part of the department we sought records from and later said they accidentally failed to include them in their search for records.
The county also maintained for more than a year that complaints couldn’t be released under a state law about whistleblower hotlines – and that releasing them could have a chilling effect.
It wasn’t until a judge forced the county to release those records that we learned about significant culture issues at the Edgemoor facility that serves medically fragile adults, sexual harassment at the county’s psychiatric hospital and an instance where an administrative analyst who worked elsewhere in the department made a racist comment during an online diversity training. County officials promoted the analyst months after the investigation.
The records spurred an uproar and the firing of the county’s behavioral health director, who has said she’s now considering her legal options.
The county says it’s making changes to address the issues that came up in the investigations, but it’s also defending its moves to keep the records confidential.
Written by Lisa Halverstadt | September 10, 2026 | Voice of San Diego
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